THERE IS SOMEONE WHO CAN STOP THE MADNESS:MARY JO WHITE

On June 27, 2016, the SEC released its final rule for Section 1504, which will require oil and mining companies publicly traded on US stock exchanges to disclose payments to the US and foreign governments. By finalizing these rules, the US joins 30 countries, including members of the European Union as well as the UK, Canada, and Norway, that will require oil, gas, and mining company disclosure of payments to governments.

ALL CHAIR WHITE NEEDS IS A LITTLE PUSH TO SHOW THAT WE’VE GOT HER BACK.

Paulinus Agala’s house was destroyed by rival factions in Rumuekpe fighting to control the community and therefore payments for community development from oil companies. He and his family now live in the ruins of this building. Photo: George Osodi / Panos for Oxfam America.

Today, most of the homes lining Rumuekpe’s roads are now merely scorched concrete walls, with gaping holes that used to be windows, roofless. In one village, they have replaced the roof on the three-room school, but there are no windows, floors, chairs, or desks. Students sit on rough boards balanced on bricks and rocks. In another village, the chief shows visitors the site of the school, now completely overgrown by tall grass, and merely a memory for him and his neighbors.

Experts working in the Niger Delta say the conflict at some levels is understandable. “People in communities don’t understand why companies can come and take their land, destroy their crops and fish and kill the environment, and they don’t get anything from their operations,” says Ifeanyi Ajaegbpo, program director at the Community Institute for Enhanced Peace and Development. “They don’t have a political voice or any legislation to protect them.”

Who is responsible for development?

“Drop your weapons” a sign implores those entering Rumuekpe, a community of seven small villages that endured years of violent armed conflict over control of oil pipelines and money from companies operating in the area. The community is now at peace, but struggling to rebuild. Despite millions of barrels of oil passing through the area, there is little evidence the villages have benefited from the oil wealth the region produces. Photo: George Osodi / Panos for Oxfam America.

People in Rumuekpe are accustomed to pressuring oil companies to provide support for all sorts of community needs, says Gaius Sunday Ajuro, an elder in the community. He sees the irony of the millions of barrels of crude flowing past his bombed out community – but Ajuro says he and his neighbors could use a little information to help them verify they are getting their fair share of Nigeria’s oil wealth.. “If we know what the companies pay to the government as royalties, we can hold the government accountable,” he says. He says people are confused about the proper role of the company, and the responsibility of the government. “The government needs to do its own part by providing security, piped water, and electricity” he says. “That’s their responsibility.”

Experts working with communities across the oil-producing Niger Delta region agree. “We’ve struggled for a long time to resolve conflicts and we’ve been operating in the dark,” says Ishmael Atorudibo, who has worked on resolving community conflicts for the African Center for Corporate Responsibility for 10 years in the Niger Delta. “We don’t know how much companies pay the government to carry out their responsibilities.”

Elders meet in a partially reconstructed community center in Rumuekpe. Community members and their leaders are working hard to unify and find resources to rebuild following years of conflict, and say more access to revenues from oil produced and piped through their community could help them rebuild. Photo: George Osodi / Panos for Oxfam America.

Oxfam and many other organizations are pushing for companies to publicly disclose their payments to governments—it’s actually part of the 2010 Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act. But they are still waiting (for five years now) for final rules from the US Securities and Exchange Commission to implement the law. The European Union, Canada, and Norway all have their transparency laws in place, and the world and people in Nigeria are waiting for the United States.

“US companies run the oil and gas sector in Nigeria,” says journalist Obas Esiedesa, in the capital Abuja. “Our laws are outdated so a law in the US will make them mindful of what they do here.”

Community members leave a meeting in Rumuekpe, in the Niger Delta region of Nigeria. The community building was destroyed in fighting between rival gangs vying for political control as well as access to payments from oil companies operating in the area. One of the companies is now paying to reconstruct the building. Photo: George Osodi / Panos for Oxfam America.

“Such legislation, if adequately implemented, would go a long way to assist our organizations to tackle conflicts between government, communities, and companies,” says Ishmael Atorudibo. “If the communities could … know how much the companies pay the government, it will help them hold their leaders accountable. I think this is critical.”

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“We need development here”

“We need development here”

Millions of barrels of oil pass by, but community has “nothing to show for it”

Legislation requiring information about oil revenues would help fragile community rebuild homes and schools.

by Chris Hufstader

He introduces himself as “Honorable Gaius,” a grand name for a rather grand looking man, stout and tall and serious looking despite his colorful white and red outfit. Gaius Sunday Ajuro is a former town councilor; hence the title that precedes his first name.

Gaius Sunday Ajuro, a former town councilor, says his community needs more assistance from the government to recover from violent conflict and chronic poverty. Photo: George Osodi / Panos for Oxfam America.

He lives across the street from State School No. 2, a primary school, where children in faded blue school uniforms file in and out, and approach his home, curious about the visitors there. Across a large field is a much bigger, newer looking school, but it stands empty and unfinished. It’s the only evidence of any sort of government investment in development in Ovelle, Ajuro’s home village, part of the larger community called Rumuekpe.

Ajuro says it was a struggle to get the school built while he served on a community development council from 2011 to 2014. “I made sure they put a roof on it,” he says, implying it might have been an optional feature. He reports there are no other state-sponsored projects underway anywhere in Rumuekpe, despite the fact that 100,000 barrels of oil passes through the area every day, and the communities here suffer from oil spills and other problems. “All the oil from Bayelsea comes to Rumuekpe before going to Bonny Island,” he says, referring to a neighboring state and the major seaport for the region. “But we have nothing to show for it.”

Schools in poor condition

Student Thankgod Chigodzi in his school classroom at the Mgbuoda State School in Omegwa village, Rumuekpe. The building lacks chairs and desks; students sit on makeshift benches. Photo: George Osodi / Panos for Oxfam America.

Violence in Rumuekpe damaged nearly all the homes and schools. Even before this period of conflict, which people here refer to as “the crisis,” the schools were in poor condition. “We have to carry our own chairs to school,” says Divine Ekem, now 17, describing the primary schools in Rumuekpe.

“There are no qualified teachers, no lockers, no security.” A quick visit to the Mgbuoda State School in Omegwa village shows Ekem is not exaggerating: While the villagers have replaced the roof, there are no desks or chairs, only rough boards balanced on rocks. The blackboard is on an easel in the front of the room, and trash litters the dirt floor.

Divine Ekem, 17, with her grandmother, greet visitors outside their newly reconstructed home in Rumuekpe. Ekem says the primary schools in her village are in poor condition, and students had to carry their own chairs to class. Now she attends secondary school in another community as there is none in Rumuekpe. Photo by George Osodi / Panos for Oxfam America.

Ekem now attends a secondary school in another community; there isn’t one anywhere in Rumuekpe. “We need development here, if we had more money we could improve the schools,” she says.
Communities here are accustomed to demanding help from oil companies, but companies mostly refer citizens to the local and federal government. Ajuro says it’s hard to get the government to take action. “We have asked several times, they have not come to our assistance. They say it is because of the crisis, but there’s no crisis now.”
Visitors to his home on this day tell Ajuro about legislation in the US and other countries requiring oil companies to disclose payments to government, and they ask him what he would do with the information: “The federal government is supposed to give us 13 percent of oil revenues to host communities, but we don’t see it. If we can know how much oil companies pay the government, we can hold government accountable.”

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For farmers, “it’s all about money”

For farmers, “it’s all about money”

Jobs and farming the key to recovery from oil conflict

Agricultural expert says finance for farmers would drive development

by Chris Hufstader

Nearly six years of conflict has left the village of Imogu in ruins. Most of the buildings were destroyed, and everyone fled as men battled for political and military control of the area, and the power to manage money coming from oil companies operating in this part of the Niger Delta.

A bombed out home is now surrounded by cassava as survivors of the communal violence in Rumuekpe struggle to grow enough food to survive. Photo by George Osodi / Panos for Oxfam America.

There are few jobs, so Florence Abua, an elderly mother of seven and grandmother of 10, says most everyone is farming for food to eat. She says she grows maize, vegetables, and yams. “We have nothing else to meet our needs,” she says.

Florence Abuah, mother of seven and grandmother of 10, says “after the crisis we began planting crops to earn our daily bread. We have nothing else to meet our needs.” She says farmers in Rumuekpe grow cassava, maize, and other vegetables like yams. She says the government should use money it earns from exporting oil to “give us a school, a health center, good roads, and water.” Photo by George Osodi / Panos for Oxfam America.

With few options for jobs, and little money to rebuild their homes, farming is not just the only option, it is essential to feed a hungry family, explains Patience Nfarinwo, an unemployed agricultural extension worker with short hair and a broad smile. She used to work for the Ministry of Agriculture before the fighting drove her and her family away. She has not been able to work since 2007, and since returning has been growing maize and vegetables with her husband, hoping the government will hire her again.

Patience Nfarinwu, 36, is a graduate of University of Port Harcourt in Nigeria with a degree in agricultural science. She used to work as an agricultural extension worker for the government, helping farmers improve their production, until violent conflict forced everyone in the area to flee. She says the government should devote some of the money it earns from exporting oil to provide affordable finance to farmers. Photo by George Osodi / Panos for Oxfam America.

Nfarinwo shows us her reconstructed home, behind a deep blue metal gate, where she has a motorbike she used to ride when she visited farmers in their fields to help them learn the latest farming techniques and opportunities to access markets. She also has a cassava mill, but ironically, no fuel to run it; it sits gathering dust next to her door.

“People will be employed in agriculture, so they can earn a living, but if not, people have no skill,” she says. “We need to develop the youth, so they have some skills, and agriculture can revive this area.”

“When we produce food, it helps our community,” she says.

Farmers need finance

Worried farmers are reflected in pool of oil and water near the site of a pipeline spill in Rumuekpe. Farmers and fishers all over the oil-producing Niger Delta area are affected by pollution, one of the sources of conflict in the region. Local people here complain of inadequate environmental protection measures and a lack of accountability on the part of the government to ensure spills like this are cleaned up and people affected by it are compensated. Photo by George Osodi / Panos for Oxfam America.

Nfarinwo sees one way for the government to support farmers: an affordable form of finance. “Farmers here need capital,” she says. “Without money we can’t do anything. They can’t access land, hire people to help them clear brush…they can’t even start. It’s all about money.”

Nfarinwo says information about how much the oil companies in Rumuekpe are paying the Nigerian federal government might help farmers get some more support. “Knowing how much money they get from oil companies, we can then ask them to develop our agricultural land so we can earn a living, employ farmers, and have food to eat,” she says. “And people can start their lives again.”